{"id":627326,"date":"2026-09-17T09:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627326\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:04:12","slug":"trump-tests-the-limits-of-political-make-believe-in-north-carolina-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627326\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tests the limits of political make-believe in North Carolina \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a challenging time in which to be an American, in a country whose citizens are this week being asked to simultaneously ponder imminent apocalypse wrought by artificial intelligence<\/a>, and the political principles of the amicable ginger troubadour Ed Sheeran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But down in North Carolina<\/a> on Wednesday night, the president of the United States preferred to take constituents on a nostalgia trip rather than to deal with the fresh headlines and controversies. At a rally near Gastonia airport, outside Charlotte, to which he made the brief hop on Air Force One, Trump<\/a> was there to at once campaign on behalf of Republican senator Michael Whatley and to prosecute the Democratic candidate, Roy Cooper, for what he described as a shocking level of crime in the Tar Heel state.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretend I\u2019m on the ballot,\u201d Trump told Republicans at last week\u2019s midterm convention in Dallas. His visit to North Carolina, where he won in the presidential elections of 2016, 2020 and 2024, was his first explicit test of this exercise in make-believe. His rally coincided with another poll, this time from the New York Times\/Siena College, portraying deteriorating confidence in the Republican Party\u2019s ability to handle any of the major international or domestic issues, with Trump\u2019s personal approval stuck at 38 per cent \u2013 the lowest midterm reckoning for any US leader since George W Bush was mired in the Iraq War in 2006.<\/p>\n

In North Carolina, Cooper, whose two-time governorship of the state was defined by moderation, holds a 9 to 11 per cent lead over his Republican opponent in most polls, but several have that gap as falling within the 5 per cent margin of error.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has really changed that we didn\u2019t anticipate,\u201d Cooper said on Wednesday during his Make Stuff Less Dear campaign tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Carolina hasn\u2019t elected a Democrat in almost two decades [Kay Hagan, 2009-2015] and only two in the last almost 40 years. So, it\u2019s tough. This is going to be anywhere from a 1 to 3 per cent race. They\u2019ve been pounding us with false negative ads since July, and the race is tightening just as we knew it would.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack point of Trump\u2019s rally message was advertised in a social media posting by Whatley early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIryna Zarutska would still be alive today if Roy Cooper\u2019s soft on crime policies didn\u2019t put her killer Decarlos Brown Jr back on the streets of Charlotte. POTUS is right, Roy Cooper allowed North Carolina to be turned into a killing field for the career criminals he let walk free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over a year has passed since the sickening killing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman who had escaped the war and was living in Charlotte with her family. She was stabbed by a stranger while travelling home from work on an evening commuter train. Her death was on August 22nd. On September 5th, videotape of the murder was released by the Charlotte Area Transport System, containing graphic and distressing footage, which caused national and international outrage and upset. <\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump dances after speaking at a rally at Gastonia Municipal Airport in Gastonia, North Carolina. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Among those who spoke repeatedly about it was Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist, who was adamant that it was important and necessary to frame the woman\u2019s killing in a racial context. The man accused of her killing is African American. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf a random white person on a subway took out a knife and stabbed a Black girl senselessly to death, there would be massive media coverage,\u201d Kirk commented in what proved to be the last message he posted to X, on September 9th, the night before he was assassinated during a public appearance at a college campus in Utah. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be policy changes. There would be people having to apologise for this. We saw this in George Floyd. And yet for whatever reason, this situation has not garnered even a fraction of that kind of outrage or backlash.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial of Decarlos Brown Jr, accused of Zarutska\u2019s murder, was delayed in June after it was found that he was not mentally competent to stand trial and required medical treatment to try to restore competency.<\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s point was to remind North Carolinians that Brown was among 3,500 criminals released from prison early in 2021, when Cooper was governor of the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to defeat the murderer and criminal protector, the man who made North Carolina the talk of this country,\u201d he told them.<\/p>\n

The Cooper campaign has repeatedly pointed out that the release of those prisoners, in February 2021, came as part of an agreement after a lawsuit taken by several civil rights groups alleging that Covid conditions contravened their rights under the state constitution. Prior to that agreement, a federal judge had indicated he would likely side with the plaintiffs who sought the release of some 18,000 prisoners. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something the state had to do because the court ordered it,\u201d Cooper said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrump released 13,000 prisoners at least during the Covid era. They are lying in the cases they are trying to connect to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting by the Charlotte Observer established that Brown was, in fact, released from prison in September 2020, having completed a minimum-sentence period for robbery with a dangerous weapon, and reached the end of his post-release supervision period in September 2021. However, his name was included in that overall list of 3,500 released after the court agreement. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year, a video recording showed Brown interacting with police in January 2025, when he claimed his body had \u201cgot exposed to\u201d a man-made material and that he needed help. Police attending that call told him there was nothing they could do and he was arrested that night for misusing the 911 call system.<\/p>\n

\"SupportersSupporters take pictures as Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Gastonia Municipal Airport in Gastonia, North Carolina, as he campaigns for Senate candidate Michael Whatley. Photograph; Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The appalling circumstances of Zarutska\u2019s death, and the randomness of the violence, left a deep impression on North Carolinians, and in what Trump promised will be the first of several visits to the state over the next few weeks, it now looks set to become an election campaign point of tension. <\/p>\n

The venue held fewer than 1,000 people, a far remove from the monster rallies Trump was conducting this time two years ago. Significantly, it was carried live by none of the major networks; while Trump was speaking, even Fox elected instead to run its usual evening show, including a feature countering a backlash against an advert starring the Hollywood actor Sydney Sweeney under the headline: The Left Hates Hot People.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a thought that Trump might enjoy, but he won\u2019t have much time for evening television over the next few months. Over 40 minutes, he spoke, in evident frustration, about the various accomplishments of his administration \u2013 from the 162,000 jobs report from this month to the \u201c21 trillion dollar\u201d inward investment to the United States through his tariffs. The small crowd applauded loyally but he needs to reach Red loyalists of Mitchell, of Avery and of Cherokee county.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was on the ballot I wouldn\u2019t have to be here tonight, we\u2019d get everybody out to vote,\u201d he said wistfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of you like me more than you like the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatley presumably smiled through gritted teeth at this. <\/p>\n

It was true two years ago. It remains to be seen if Trump \u2013 and that promise of a $5,000 stipend for all voters if the Republicans retain both House and Senate \u2013 can convince North Carolina this time around. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a challenging time in which to be an American, in a country whose citizens are this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14843,969,42,43,16621,40,38,41,39,90],"class_list":["post-627326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-democratic-party","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-republican-party","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}